The musings, recipes and adventures of a girl that loves to eat

Homemade Oreos

If the idea of homemade oreos isn’t making you salivate, there’s something wrong. No offense, but it’s true. I stumbled across this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and immediately printed it, strategizing when I’d be able to make them (ideally that day, which didn’t happen).

The idea of making homemade oreos sounds a bit daunting. And store-bought oreos are quite tasty. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” right? Wrong. Most things you buy in a store can be made even better, if you have the energy to make it at home.

These were actually really easy to make and they are so worth the effort. I mean, come on, doesn’t that look fanatastic? Yum…. frosting…

Usually when I post pictures of the food I make I try to avoid photographic redundancy– I’ll post a picture of the food from one angle, and then a picture of something else entirely. Not here. I’m am so taken by these cookies (and you will be too) that I want to see as many pictures of them as I can. These cookies fall into the realm of the marshmallow peanut butter brownies: everyone wants the recipe and asks you to make them again and again. Consider yourself forewarned.

(I had to add in about 2 tbsp of milk because there didn’t seem to be enough liquid for the filling to come together. However, this also made it a little to runny at room temp. Try without adding milk, and add if if the filling doesn’t seem “frostingy”)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.

In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart (you don’t needparchment paper if you don’t have it, which I didn’t. I made little balls of dough with my hands once I figured out what size they should be because scooping with a teaspoon was a bit cumbersome). With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking (don’t need to do this either). Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie (you can use a ziplock bag, cut off one of the corners and pipe the filling that way too, if you don’t have a pastry bag and piping tips). Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream (Be generous with the frosting, as I had some left over).